ABSTRACT
The term non-timber forest product (NTFP) was first popularized by de Beer and McDermott (1989) in an attempt to raise awareness of the importance of forests for uses other than commercial logging. They drew attention to the fact that many forest resources, other than timber, held significant value for local people and their economies and certainly did not deserve the label ‘minor’ forest products. They defined NTFPs to encompass ‘all biological materials other than timber, which are extracted from forests for human use’. Since then there have been various refinements of this definition and much debate over what should and should not be included as an NTFP (Belcher, 2003). Wickens (1991) defined ‘timber’ more explicitly as industrial roundwood and derived sawn timber, woodchips, wood panel and pulp, and added plantations as well as natural forests as a source of products. With this clarification, woodcarvings, fuelwood, charcoal and other locally manufactured wood products such as furniture all fall under the NTFP banner. This contrasts with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) term – non-wood forest products (NWFP) – that purposely excludes wood in all its forms. Recently, the use of the term NWFP has become so widespread, that it now often encompasses products from ecosystems other than forests (Belcher, 2003).
